Psionics

Psionics is the study of paranormal phenomena in relation to the application of electronics.[1] The term comes from psi ('psyche') and the -onics from electronics (machine).[1][2] It is closely related to the field of radionics.[1][3] There is no scientific evidence that psionic abilities exist.[4]

Parapsychologists associated with psionics have included John Hasted and Robert G. Jahn.[1] Their experiments were heavily criticized by the scientific community due to weak controls, methodological flaws and no independent replication.[7][8][9]

Psionic abilities appear frequently in science fiction and provide characters with supernatural abilities.[10]John W. Campbell, an editor of a science fiction magazine, became excited about fringe science,[11] and went on to define psionics as "engineering applied to the mind".[12] His encouragement of psionics led author Murray Leinster and others to write stories such as The Psionic Mousetrap.[11]

Science writer Martin Gardner wrote that the study of psionics is "even funnier than dianetics or Ray Palmer's Shaver stories", and criticized the beliefs of Campbell as anti-scientific nonsense.[5]

^Cordón, Luis A. (2005). Popular Psychology: an Encyclopedia. Wesport (Conn.): Greenwood. p. 182. ISBN0-313-32457-3. The essential problem is that a large portion of the scientific community, including most research psychologists, regards parapsychology as a pseudoscience, due largely to its failure to move beyond null results in the way science usually does. Ordinarily, when experimental evidence fails repeatedly to support a hypothesis, that hypothesis is abandoned. Within parapsychology, however, more than a century of experimentation has failed to conclusively demonstrate the mere existence of paranormal phenomenon, yet parapsychologists continue to pursue that elusive goal.